Why Has Nuclear Power Been a Flop?

Over the past few months, venture activity in nuclear has converged upon nuclear fusion. Nuclear fusion has been garnering a significant amount of attention—perhaps at the neglect of its older sibling, nuclear fission. While the technology and progress of nuclear fusion is astonishing, we think the future of nuclear fission holds equal potential to... See more

Additionally, the heat engines that fission power plants use to convert fission energy into electricity (i.e., heat produces steam which turns a turbine) are incredibly inefficient. Another challenge for nuclear fission is optics and government backing. Demand for nuclear power has been heavily impacted by nuclear accidents. Today, nuclear power ha... See more

One of the biggest challenges for nuclear fission is economic: New plants take years to build and cost billions of dollars. A number of factors contribute to nuclear fission’s economic challenges, which have only increased over the past few decades. In addition to the obvious capital costs, onerous regulations stretch out the development times for ... See more

In contrast, modern nuclear reactors, if properly built and carefully run, offer safe, long-lasting, and highly reliable ways of electricity generation; as already noted, they are able to operate more than 90 percent of the time, and their lifespan can exceed 40 years. Still, the future of nuclear generation remains uncertain. Only China, India, an

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